InPhase Technologies, the leader in holographic data storage, today announced that it will develop an automated holographic media manufacturing system with the grant that it received from Rosettex Technology & Ventures Group, on behalf of the National Technology Alliance (NTA).

The contract, specified at more than $600,000.00, will assist InPhase in the further commercialization of its patented TapestryTM media, which will be the first holographic storage media to reach the commercial market. The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) manages the NTA program as the Executive Agent for the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community.

This latest award for 2002 marks the fourth contract that InPhase has received from the NTA, dating back to 1994, for a total of $3.5 million.

Rosettex, a joint venture between Sarnoff Corporation and SRI International, will manage the NTA project. Rosettex, formed earlier this year, was awarded a procurement agreement by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency to advance three technology areas of critical interest to the Intelligence Community, Military Services, and Department of Defense: (1) Geographic Intelligence; (2) Information Processing, Analysis, and Management; and (3) Digital Technology Infrastructure. Zygo Corporation will work with InPhase on the automated manufacturing process during the project's phase. Zygo was selected to deliver the integrated manufacturing solution necessary to support InPhase's production process and volume production needs of the data storage industry. Zygo's patented technology provides direct process feedback and control of the critical parameters for media construction and is crucial to the automated manufacturing foundation upon which the storage media is constructed.

InPhase, through extensive surveys with end-users, projects wide applications for the Tapestry media, ranging from smart cards for consumer products to removable media for enterprise-class storage products. Numerous optical drive companies are currently evaluating InPhase's Tapestry media for use in ROM and recordable drives.

"It's encouraging to have such sustained support from the NTA, which was one of the original sponsors of our early work on holographic media," said Lisa Dhar, vice president of media development at InPhase. "We believe that the NTA, through Rosettex, has identified a world-class set of partners to help manage this next phase of holographic media development."